Today, it is necessary for Telecommunications Users (TU) to be able to process calls or to communicate based on the importance of incoming voice, data, or video transmissions. Often, unwanted calls, such as from telemarketing services, or unimportant calls interrupt busy schedules. To avoid such interruptions, TUs often turn off the devices that receive and transmit voice, data, and video. However, if an important personal or professional communication comes in, it would typically not be received if said device is “turned off”. In this case, the TUs would be unable to respond to said incoming personal or professional communication because their devices would be “off” and said communication would pass to Voice Mail, wait on a computer server, or wait in an inbox area for storing information. If said incoming communication is important or of an emergency nature, it would be treated as any other type of incoming information. For this reason and others, this present invention, a telecommunications wake-up (TWU) system and method, will accommodate and facilitate important and priority, incoming communication and deliver messages, calls, data, information, and video.
TUs need to have important communications such as information relating to emergency situations or urgent calls given extreme priority over less important incoming transmissions. Moreover, a telecommunications device needs to be able to be “wake up” in case of an emergency or important incoming transmission of voice, data, or video. Moreover, when their telecommunications devices are turned off, persons would like to receive communication relating to an emergency event or an important professional or personal event. With the TWU system and method, TUs can turn their telecommunication devices to “Listening Mode” (LM) which enables said telecommunications device to appear to be turned off; however, said device continues to receive incoming voice, data and video communication. Furthermore, the system alerts the TU if said communication is of an emergency or important nature by “turning on” said device and enabling it to function as it would under normal circumstances.
In addition, because of the accelerated demand for increasingly targeted communication, the increased interaction of individuals via messaging and global communication technology, and the increased amount of International travel across time zones, multinational companies such as eBay, Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, HP, Verizon, AT&T/Cingular, Apple Computer, Siemens, General Electric, Oracle, Sony, Nokia, Motorola, Virgin Atlantic, Ericsson, British Telecom, Bell South, Samsung, American Express, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, as well as firms and organizations providing goods and services specifically in the area of telecommunications, such as Nortel, DoCoMo, Nokia, SBC, France Telecom, Lucent, SBC, Quest Communications, Vonage and Skype, among others, are looking for ways to facilitate emergency communication and priority calls and messages to individuals, firms and organizations, even when their telecommunications devices are switched “off”.
Telecommunications Users (TU) are able to set their own emergency calls or priority calls, and can also select names in the directory on their telecommunication devices (TD), graphical user interfaces (GUI) and/or handsets, thereby, presetting calls as “priority” or “emergency” calls. Examples include, but are not limited to, TUs setting the following groups and/or individuals as emergency calls or priority calls: family members, business colleagues, government personnel, military personnel, workers for NGOs, teenagers receiving calls and text messages from “priority” contacts, clients receiving information from a financial advisor, travelers receiving information from an agent, airlines, etc. Other examples of an emergency or priority event, would include but are not limited to: someone working in agriculture that needs to be alerted when the temperature gets close to freezing; or an investor that needs to be alerted when the price of a stock or equity falls to a certain level; or a person bidding on a vintage car in an online auction that would like to be alerted if someone bids an amount higher than his/her last bid. Even more examples of an emergency or priority event include police personnel receiving notification of their required presence at a specific site, law enforcement officials needing to be alerted to respond to a crime or disaster, medical personnel being alerted to a critical change in the health of their patients, energy industry workers needing to react to changes in operating parameters of power infrastructure.
Heretofore, inventors have created and developed a system and method for facilitating the pass-through of emergency and/or important communication to TUs by allowing the telecommunications devices to operate in “Listening Mode” and to alert said TUs of said emergency and/or important communications by powering on said devices. This invention permits said TUs to function as if awakened when an emergency and/or important communication is received, while displaying normal turned off characteristics when placed into Listening Mode.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,798,772 (Bergman, et al., 1999), expressly incorporated herein by reference, relates to a method for public access to private phone numbers and other telephonic peripherals using a caller access code and other “CLID” methods. This invention bases a call completion on an access code, which can be configured for a “pass through” type approach. The inventors claim that “the subscriber may want to allow unfettered access to the subscriber's line for his or her parents, but not a telemarketer. The subscriber may want to be protected against automatic dialers but make sure his or her friends have the ability to place a telephone call to the subscriber undisturbed.” Still, they make no mention of an emergency pass-through procedure when a handset is turned off, and they do not mention any type of handset “wake up” methodology. Therefore, although the profiling elements of this existing art are delineated, the system and method of this existing art do not provide for emergency or priority calls when a telecommunications device is not turned on, or is powered down.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,870,918 (Crowson, et al., 1999), expressly incorporated herein by reference, relates to a system and method for processing a call associated with a caller's account identity. This existing art is related to offering call forwarding services when a line is busy and allowing call pick up if the called party becomes available during the call forwarding process. This existing art is related to a call-waiting methodology and not a communication methodology where one call may have greater priority over another. This existing art does not delineate a process to support a methodology for performing communication delivery when a telecommunications device is turned off or powered down.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,888,820 (Howell, et. al. 2005) expressly incorporated herein by reference, relates to a system and method for treating a call for processing. This existing art is entirely concerned with a protocol to process call routing information into the appropriate ATM connections to carry voice traffic. This existing art does not support a system for communication when a handset is turned off or powered down.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,865,372 (Mauney, et. al. 2001) expressly incorporated herein by reference, relates to an enhanced wireless handset, including direct handset-to-handset communication mode. This existing art is related to a direct handset-to-handset communication capability as well as via wireless delivery. This existing art is not related to an intelligent communication methodology where one call may have increased importance over another. This existing art does not show a methodology for enabling urgent communication delivery when a telecommunications device is turned off or powered down.
Other recent systems and methods coming onto the market, for example, the “Heartbeat technology” as announced by AT&T, may relate to a method of facilitating 911 caller locations when said 911 caller is communicating over VoIP technology. This type of system and method is based on the VoIP devices' power down event causing a discontinuance of VoIP service on the part of the carrier. When the VoIP device is powered up, the login system asks the user to provide their location at the time. This existing art doesn't make a distinction between emergency and vital calls vs. non-priority communications.
Accordingly, existing inventions describe systems and methods for delivering access to emergency systems and/or for blocking unwanted callers but they do not address the need to communicate with TUs even if their telecommunications devices are turned off. To summarize, the systems and methods of the existing inventions have the one profound disadvantage:                Once a TUs telecommunications device is turned off, the existing art of the inventions cited above do not support a system or methodology for enabling the delivery of important and priority calls and messages to parties.        